Oliver Stone

Oliver Stone, born William Oliver Stone in New York City, is the son of a Wall Street stockbroker and a French mother; he attended Trinity School and The Hill boarding school.⁠[1]

He dropped out of Yale UniversityYale UniversityYale University is a research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Its predecessor, the Collegiate School, received a charter in 1701. Trustees chose New Haven in 1716; the institution became Yale College in 1718 and Yale University in 1887. Yale provides undergraduate, graduate and professional education and has 14 undergraduate residential colleges. As of October 2026, its president was Maurie McInnis, who took office in July 2024. In 2026, Yale expanded aid for incoming undergraduates and celebrated its 325th anniversary.Open the full entry at 19 to teach in Vietnam and later worked on a Merchant Marine ship; he returned to Yale, dropped out again and enlisted to fight in Vietnam, where he won the Bronze Star and was wounded twice.⁠[2]

After the war he studied film at New York University under Martin Scorsese, graduating in 1971; he then drove a cab and took other jobs to support his writing, and in 1974 wrote and directed the horror film Seizure.⁠[1]

He has won six Golden Globes: best screenplay for Midnight Express in 1979, best director for Platoon in 1987, best director and best screenplay for Born on the Fourth of July in 1990, best director again in 1992, and an award in 1996 for the television film Indictment: The McMartin Trial.⁠[3]

At the 51st Academy Awards on April 9, 1979, he won the award for best adapted screenplay for Midnight Express.⁠[4]

He regards Salvador, made for about $3 million with James Woods, as his first proper film; it was not a commercial success. He says Platoon, made the same year, is true to his own combat experience.⁠[2]

At the 59th Academy Awards, Platoon won best picture and he won the directing award; he received three nominations that year, as director and screenwriter of Platoon and as co-writer with Richard Boyle of Salvador.⁠[5]

Wall Street (1987) follows the young broker Bud Fox, played by Charlie SheenCharlie SheenCharlie Sheen is an American actor and author known for Platoon, Wall Street, Major League and the television comedy Two and a Half Men. He won a Golden Globe for Spin City and later published The Book of Sheen, with subsequent work in documentary, podcasting and television production.Open the full entry, who is drawn into corruption by the corporate raider Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas, portraying the greed of 1980s finance.⁠[6]

On March 26, 1990, he won the directing award at the 62nd Academy Awards for Born on the Fourth of July; the film was also nominated for best picture, his screenplay with Ron Kovic was nominated for adapted screenplay, and the film won for film editing.⁠[7]

JFK (1991) received eight Oscar nominations, won two and grossed more than $200 million, but its factual accuracy was questioned. He later recalled that he was a relative novice when it came out and was afterward labeled a “conspiracy theorist” in Hollywood.⁠[8]

Natural Born Killers (1994), about a young couple of killers turned into celebrities by the media, was seen as a critique of media sensationalism of violence. A victim of a 1995 shooting sued him and Time Warner for inciting violence; after several appeals, a judge dismissed the case in March 2001, finding no evidence the film was made to cause violence.⁠[9]

His Nixon, with Anthony Hopkins as Richard Nixon, was released by Disney’s Hollywood Pictures in limited release on December 20, 1995, and expanded on January 5, 1996; it runs 191 minutes.⁠[10]

He spent three days with Fidel Castro in February 2002 to make the documentary Comandante, and at its Berlin Film Festival screening said Castro should be seen as “one of the Earth’s wisest people.” HBO then postponed the broadcast indefinitely, saying Cuba’s recent crackdown made the film seem dated; Cuban exile leader Jorge Mas Santos said it would have given Castro a platform to “whitewash his sins.”⁠[11]

The epic Alexander, starring Colin Farrell and made on a budget of about $155 million, opened on November 24, 2004, earned $13.6 million in its opening weekend and quickly faded amid negative reviews, receiving no Oscar nominations.⁠[12]

World Trade Center (2006), starring Nicolas Cage and Michael Peña and released by Paramount, is based on the real experiences of two police officers trapped beneath the rubble on September 11.⁠[13]

He directed W., a biopic of then-President George W. Bush starring Josh Brolin that runs from his Yale years to the White House; one review called it a subtle and complex portrait.⁠[14]

His documentary on Hugo Chávez, South of the Border, premiered at the Venice Film Festival with Chávez in attendance. Journalist Robert Smith criticized it for never asking hard questions or mentioning controversies such as Chávez’s revoking of private broadcasters’ licenses; Stone replied that he wanted to give Chávez “a fair shake” and that dwelling on “10 percent of negatives” would hurt the film.⁠[15]

In 2012 he adapted Don Winslow’s novel into the crime thriller Savages, which critic Ty Burr called his strongest work in years while faulting its ending.⁠[16]

In November 2012 the 10-part documentary series Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States, made with historian Peter Kuznick, was airing on Showtime every Monday, with a companion book; both examine the dark side of American history.⁠[17]

He worked with Ukrainian-born producer Igor Lopatonok on Ukraine on Fire (2016) and Revealing Ukraine (2019), interviewing Vladimir Putin and Viktor Yanukovych. Ukrainian commentator Mykola Vorobiov criticized the films for softball questions and for repeating the Kremlin’s narrative.⁠[18]

Snowden, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Edward Snowden, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2016; at the festival he called on Barack Obama to pardon Snowden before leaving office.⁠[19]

The four-part The Putin Interviews aired on Showtime from June 12 to 15, 2017, drawn from interviews with Putin beginning in July 2015. US critics largely panned it as hagiographic, and Russia scholar Karen Dawisha said the Russian income figures Stone cited did not reflect reality.⁠[20]

Critic Brian Lowry wrote that Stone mostly listened and offered leading questions, opening him to charges of becoming a public-relations tool for Putin, while granting there was value in hearing Putin on his own terms.⁠[21]

On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert questioned why he had not followed up on election interference; Stone said he respected Putin as “a strong nationalist” and that Putin had been insulted and abused in the press.⁠[22]

His memoir Chasing the Light, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on July 21, 2020, recounts his New York childhood, volunteering for combat, years of writing scripts and driving taxis in New York, and the making of Midnight Express, Scarface, Salvador and Platoon.⁠[23]

His documentary JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass premiered in the Cannes Premiere section, narrated by Whoopi Goldberg and Donald Sutherland. In it he says “The conspiracy theories have been shown to be conspiracy facts”; critic Jason Solomons found that the film piles up doubts without providing answers.⁠[24]

His self-narrated documentary Nuclear premiered at the Venice Film Festival, arguing that nuclear power is a clean energy source for tackling climate change and contrasting Germany’s rejection of nuclear with France and China; critic Carlos Aguilar found it informative but didactic.⁠[25]

He has said Nuclear Now was meant to present what scientists say rather than what protesters say, and that he wanted it to work for eighth and ninth graders.⁠[26]

Before Russia’s full-scale invasion he said the United States and NATO had been provoking Russia over Ukraine and that Russia was concerned only with the Donbas. After the invasion he wrote on Facebook: “Russia was wrong to invade,” adding that America’s wars did not justify Putin’s aggression.⁠[27]

On May 2, 2022, he speculated on Twitter that the United States might stage a low-yield nuclear explosion of unknown origin in the Donbas to blame Russia; a Voice of America fact check rated this misleading, noting that it was Russia, not the United States, that had made nuclear threats.⁠[28]

He appeared as the guest of episode #286 of the Lex FridmanLex FridmanLex Fridman is a Soviet-born, US-raised computer scientist and podcast host who works as an MIT research scientist on human-AI interaction and autonomous driving. His Lex Fridman Podcast is known for hours-long conversations with guests including heads of state and technology leaders.Open the full entry Podcast, discussing nuclear power, Russia–US relations, JFK and the Cold War, interviewing Putin, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, propaganda and nuclear war.⁠[29]

The Cannes Film Festival announced a 2024 special screening of his documentary Lula on Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, covering Lula’s 2018–2019 imprisonment and return to power.⁠[26]

Introducing it at the Cannes premiere, he said he “admire[s] this man deeply”; critic Chase Hutchinson found the film valuable but often close to hagiography.⁠[30]

On April 1, 2025, he testified before the House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, urging Congress to reinvestigate the Kennedy assassination and the CIA’s role; the documents declassified that March did not substantively change the Warren Commission’s finding that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman.⁠[31]

X: Public account: https://x.com/TheOliverStone (opens in a new window)⁠[29]